I was fortunate enough this year for a farmer to let me hunt his land and get a 5 acre piece to plant a food plot. He has very high deer numbers. At times, I've seen 17 deer out in his field. Looking for advice for late season food plot for high deer numbers. Soil test came back at 6.0 and will lime accordingly. The only thing I CANT plant is corn. Never did Corn before. What will suit up best for high deer population?
Plot for late season
- Thread starter BobinCt
- Start date
JohnL48
A good 3 year old buck
Bill
Administrator
And cereal rye. But not necessarily mixed with the turnips.
Peplin Creek
5 year old buck +
You could try to plant soybeans if you can get them in soon. Otherwise like others have said, turnips and radishes. Mix in some Winfred brassica. Big leafs and the deer don't really touch it until later in the year.
Plottin'booners
5 year old buck +
Winfred forage brassicas in a small strip as well is my favorite for really late. If it is on a hillside at all leave a few strips planted to rye and clover with no brassicas. Turnips and Radishes decay really quickly and leave the ground soft and bare in the spring and it washes really easy.
S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
SOYBEANS!!!!! You still have time. Get them in asap broadcast a cereal of some sort with CC and radishes come sept and dont hunt it until your last week of the season. With that much ground if you stay out of there by the time december rolls around every deer in the area will be on that plot during daylight. Take your pick and pull the trigger.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
I can vouch for a mix of brassicas and a patch of cereal rye. ( as Bill mentioned in post #3 ). We planted a plot of purple top turnips, Groundhog radishes, Pasja forage brassica, & Dwarf Essex rape next to a plot of winter wheat and winter rye ( cereal rye ) mixed. Deer were in there all fall & winter and cleaned up the brassicas pretty well. Deer would go from the brassica plot to the WW/WR plot right next to it. The radishes leave holes in the ground about the diameter of a tennis ball several inches deep, but they break up the hard soil / hard pan and let your lime / fertilizer get down deep into the soil in spring. The brassica plot was pretty bare this spring, but some of the plants must have gone to seed. Some were hatching as soon as the ground warmed up. We've rotated that plot to oats/peas this spring.
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
I would only plant soybeans if you can fence them. I would think beans would be long gone if there are many deer around. Various brassicas would be a good choice but they can be hit and miss. Some herds don't know they should eat them.
What is late season for you?
What is late season for you?
S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
5 acres is a lot of beans. If the deer hit them hard it will only mean better germination for the fall planting of cereals and brassicas. That way you will have something green growing on the soil all year round. May as well have a legume in the dirt to fix N for the fall plantings.
If this is your first year planting this area, it wouldn't hurt to try a few different crops to see what they like best in your specific area. The first year I bought my place the farmer renting my 10 acres of fields couldn't plant his crops because it was too wet that spring, so I was able to plant all 10 acres into food plots after the prevented planting date. I believe I could put the seeds in the ground the last week in June and I planted every type of seed I could find. It was a pretty cool experiment and in one year I was able to find out what the deer liked. Soybeans were by far the #1 choice, but once the beans were eaten they hit brassicas and everything else pretty hard.
